St. Mary's County Board of Education had a Superintendent's Safety & Security Committee for slightly over 20 years. The current Safety & Security Director disbanded the primary part of this Committee that involved members of the Community such as you or me. It also involved emergency service folks, etc. However, 90% were folks from their own schools. Anyone from the Community was substantially outnumbered by school personnel. I was a member until they disbanded it. They elected to keep a "Child's" version of this Committee instead of an "adult" version. Yes, you read it correctly. Children. I guess the idea is they figure it is their schools. Let them control their destiny or something like that. I can see how well it is working.
Years ago at Great Mills High School there was a child nearly "killed" by another teen. The Community, parent and media attention at the time was more than the "politically correct" school system could handle. Therefore, they created a Sub Committee of the Board of Education Safety and Security Committee to specifically examine what went wrong and how to correct it in the future. I will never forget it. - Instead of creating a stronger, better, more proactive disciplinary system, they completely watered down the existing one they had. This in turn created an even further unsafe environment for both the students and the teachers. You will notice over the years several schools have had changes in Principals. This isn't by accident. The Safety and Security Department of the Board of Education has a SIGNIFICANT budget of "your" tax dollars. Do you think they are spending it wisely? Trying asking them where it goes and for what purpose? And then follow the money and see where it actually goes. Anyhow, you have the idea. As for our schools, I predict this type of terrible harm to a child is just the beginning. There are this type of "bullies" if you want to call them that in pretty much all of the schools. The schools know exactly who they are. Don't forget, we have police is pretty much every school. This goes to show you what shape our PUBLIC schools are in these days that we require cops in our schools. Bring on the Charter and private schools. Do you see any cops in those schools? Nope. Will you? Nope. The public schools are all about Unions. Yes, the teachers care about the kids for the most part. But, the Unions are their backbone. It's all about money. And the unfortunate children get caught somewhere in the middle. 99% of these kids want a good education. When the BOE leaves thugs in class along with those that want to learn, it doesn't work. We told them that. They simply don't care. So you see, the Merry Go Around well just continue to spin until another kid gets hurt or even killed. And yes, I predict a child being killed in one of our schools is certainly a possibility. And yes, that's quite horrible to say. But, what I know of our kids does meet the possibility of this profile. For example, look at the Psychologists they have hired. What might that tell you? And by the way, while I am at it, isn't this week education week or something like that? Disgusting. Truly disgusting. They celebrate some type of education week while a "child" is flown out. I am not sure what that is all about. I hope that our schools improve. We have great teachers that do a tough job. The BOE owes it to them and to the students that want to learn to get the "thugs" out of our schools. Without asking for the name of the student ask the BOE if the student was expelled or not? And ask how many times the student has been in trouble. I got a feeling you might be surprised.